Yesterday morning, the federal government released the 2010 Census, which said there were 8,791,894 of us living in New Jersey. This is a paltry 4.5 percent increase from 2000, and will cost us a seat in Congress, but it will not cost us the title of nation’s "most densely populated state."

"Most densely populated" in Census terms means "most people per square mile." Either way, it’s an ugly term, one of chaos and congestion. It creates a mental picture of hundreds of mice crawling all over each other in a square-foot cage.

Cynics say it’s an accurate picture. Especially after a cynic has tried parking in Hoboken.

But if you’ve ever been lost in the Pine Barrens (on foot) or broken down on Old Mine Road deep in Sussex County, you know how spacious New Jersey can feel. Most densely populated? Not while you’re waiting for AAA. Believe it or not, New Jersey has places with no cell service and where GPS has not yet tread.

And so on the eve of the Census release, a little road trip was in order to paint a portrait of New Jersey more textured than the by-the-numbers snapshot government head-counters give us.

Let’s call it the Tale of Two Unions: The drive from Union City, the nation’s most densely populated city, to the sparsely populated Union Township in Hunterdon County is only an hour. Fifty-seven miles, welcome sign to welcome sign.

Union City sits on a ridge of the Palisades in Hudson County. At sunset yesterday, the pinkish glint off the stainless steel spire of the Chrysler Building and the rest of the Manhattan skyline is to the east. To the west are the flatlands of the Jersey meadows, and the ridge of the Paterson-Clifton end of the Watchungs. The red taillights on Route 3 lead west to all those Jersey towns we call home. Home to 8.8 million people and millions of lights. Car lights. Street lights. Porch lights.

Less than an hour later, a full moon rose over the rounded mountains of the Musconetcong range in Hunterdon County. A downward S-turn on Van Syckel’s Road headed into nothing but the great expanse of water at Spruce Run Reservoir and the naked hills as a backdrop. The only light was that winter moon, with wisps of clouds blowing through it.

Both scenes say New Jersey. Equally so. No matter what the numbers say.

Union City has about 63,000 people living in 1.27 square miles. But talk to its people, and they’ll tell you it’s just as "small town" as Union Township, where about 5,000 people live on 20.5 square miles.

"It’s very friendly place," said Auguisto Landeta, the manager of Panda Shoes on Bergenline Avenue in Union City. "Everybody knows each other. I have the same customers, 14 years, 10 years. It’s the same people."

Across the street, outside El Carretero Bakery, Jim Medina, talked about his hometown.

Jennifer Brown/The Star-LedgerOld and new buildings sit side by side on Bergenline Ave. in Union City.

"I wouldn’t change Union City for anything," said Medina, the son of Cuban exiles. "There’s a real community here, not just commuters. You know everybody."

The town, like most places in New Jersey, continues to grow, population-wise, and century-old brick apartment buildings are being replaced by modern complexes.

"There’s new condos and apartment buildings going up, with 70, 80 units, all the time. Not high-rises, but six or seven stories," said Robert Silva, the owner of a diner called Eggs in the City on Broadway. "There’s a lot of old-timers around, but there’s a lot of new people, too."

Still, Silva knows most of his customers, and like Landeta, he lives in the neighborhood and walks to work every day.

If you can call a town of some 70,000 people an enclave, Union City is it. It’s been that way since the Peter Stuyvesant-era Dutch arrived. Only the language changes. Now it’s Spanish. Before that, it was German, then Italian and Yiddish, and on and on.

Some of those post-Stuyvesant Dutch settlers were the Van Syckel family, who arrived in New York in 1685. A century later, they sailed up the Raritan into Hunterdon County and bought a crossroads tavern (c. 1740) that still stands in Union Township.

Joe Martin, 90, and his brother, Douglas, 77, are Van Syckels on their mother’s side. Joe lives a few hundred yards from the old homestead, and Douglas lives in a house adjacent to the tavern. Both men grew up there, and refer to it as "the new house." It was built in 1839, and didn’t have electricity until 1934.

Jennifer Brown/The Star-LedgerBrothers Joe Martin, 90, and Douglas, 77, right, stand in front of their family homestead in Union Township where their Dutch ancestors have lived for hundreds of years.

"The roads weren’t paved until the '30s, either," Joe Martin said.

Joe was a six-term mayor and member of the planning board, 50 years worth of helping run the town. Douglas was the area mortician and is the town historian. Both say much has changed in Union Township, and much has not. Old-timers are dwindling, and new neighborhoods sit atop plowed-under farmland. The hamlets of the township — Norton, Jutland, Perryville and Pattenburg — are no more than three miles off Route 78 and have become Commutervilles.

Still, there is still plenty of open space and rural culture. Joe works most days at the old homestead, splitting cords of firewood. His helper lugs logs in exchange for being allowed to hunt deer on the property.

A snapshot of the new Union Township is seen where Route 614 meets Main Street in Pattenburg, just past the stone rail trestle and Mulhockaway Creek. New houses dot the hillside vistas above the aging red barns of the valley below. Not far from where eggs are sold from a flatbed wagon, using the honor system, Veronica August runs Bellewood Wellness, a naturopathy center offering acupuncture, reflexology, yoga and therapeutic massage, all in a saltbox Colonial built in 1792. She feels right at home.

"For the very first time in my life, I have a sense of community," said August, who has lived in the Midwest and New York City. "It’s a very special feeling."